LOUISVILLE (WHAS11) -- Lawyers for Louisville Metro Police Lieutenant Jimmy Harper began opening statements Wednesday morning, Aug. 8, in a whistle-blower lawsuit Harper filed against his own police department and Louisville Metro Government.
Testimony will be heard by a jury of eight women and six men for a trial Harper’s lawyer Thomas Clay expected to stretch into next week.
Harper filed the lawsuit because he said he was unfairly demoted after expressing concern about Chief Steve Conrad’s leadership of the department.
Conrad has testified Harper was demoted, in part, because of a restructuring of Conrad’s command staff.
Clay and lawyers for Conrad told the judge they were pleased with the jury that was selected.
“I never express a confidence level because it’s easy to lose a case and easy to win a case so it's a roll of the dice anytime you've got a jury making a decision on issues presented to them, it's a roll of the dice as to how they're going to decide it,” Clay said, “The issues in this trial are certainly going to be matters of public concern that everybody ought to take an interest in.”
Clay also said the amount of evidence in the case is voluminous and was the reason he expected the case to last several days.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer was the first witness to take the stand on Wednesday.
►Contact reporter Derrick Rose at dnrose@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@WHAS11DRose) and Facebook.